Die Eroberung Karthagos

This painting is from a series of ten magnificent canvases painted to decorate the main room of Ca' Dolfin, Venice. The subject has been variously identified. It probably shows the capture of Carthage by Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (known as Scipio Africanus the Younger) in 146 B.C., a momentous event that categorically ended the power of Carthage. The carnage was unspeakable and the city burned for seventeen days. The depiction of this event probably carried an allusion to the recent campaigns of the Venetians against the Turks in the Mediterranean, and in particular to the participation of Daniele Dolfin.